Borat does America: Comedian teases new show with Dick Cheney signing ‘waterboarding kit’

A video featuring former Vice President Dick Cheney signing a ‘waterboarding’ device’ has gone viral. The clip is a teaser for comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s new undercover-in-character series called ‘Who is America?’

Cheney himself teased the show in a clip posted Monday by Showtime, the premium-cable network where ‘Who is America?’ is set to premiere next Sunday. The clip promised to showcase Cohen “as you’ve never, ever seen him before.”

Cohen gained fame – and notoriety – by doing in-character interview comedy, starting with his 2000 Da Ali G Show, which aired on UK’s Channel 4 before moving to HBO in 2003. The show spawned a series of feature film spin-offs, starting with Ali G Indahouse (2002), Borat (2006) and Bruno (2009).

Last week, however, Cohen resurfaced on Twitter and posted a video of Trump urging him to “go to school, learn about being funny.”

“Sacha graduates soon,” the tweet said.

As a follow-up, he posted a short clip of Cheney being asked to sign his character’s “waterboarding kit,” which looked like a one-gallon plastic water jug. Cheney does it with a smile, and says it was the first time anyone asked him to sign a “waterboard.”

Waterboarding is a form of ‘enhanced interrogation’ practiced by US interrogators during the Bush administration’s ‘War on Terror’ following 9/11, in which a subject would be tied to a board and water would be poured over a cloth covering their face to simulate drowning. Cheney has defended the torture practice.

While little is known about Cohen’s new character, Showtime has described him as “shameless,”“unhinged,” and “cold-blooded,” and the network called ‘Who is America?’, “perhaps the most dangerous show in the history of television.”

“Sacha is a comedic genius who shocks you with his audacity, bravery and inventiveness,” Showtime CEO David Nevins said in a statement. “Behind the elaborate setup is a genuine quest for the truth about people, places and politics.”

Kazakhstan, however, has never fully recovered from Borat, where, according to a 2016 Vice review, “almost every detail the film presented about the country was a complete and unflattering fabrication.”